Explicit Gospel

Kristi and I had an opportunity to attend the Explicit Gospel Tour with some of our Cornerstone Church family. This is a book tour with Matt Chandler and Shane and Shane leading worship. Matt Chandler is the pastor of Village Church in Dallas Texas. Matt just released the book Explicit Gospel and is traveling to various cities on the East Coast this week. The first stop was in NYC last night at Apostle’s Church. I highly recommend going and checking out this event. If you are a Christian this event is for you. If you are trying to introduce somebody to the Gospel and/or the church this event is for you. If you are exploring this thing called Christianity this is for you.

We have the book and I’m really looking forward to digging into it. From what I could understand, this book is about the Gospel and breaking it down to the simplest form or showing you how best to articulate the Gospel to someone else. His text was from Colossians 1. The overall theme is that God rescued us. Bottom line, we, in and of ourselves, are born into a sin state, are separated from God and we cannot make things right with God on our own. It was because of the work of Christ that we can be reconciled to God. The biggest theme in the Bible that is often overlooked is Grace. The problem is that many of us hear the Gospel but yet what we “hear” is a list of do’s and don’t and what ultimately happens is one of two things: 1. We make a “decision” for Christ because we ultimately don’t want to go to hell. 2. We reject the list of do’s and don’t and live for ourselves. We are in need of God to rescue us from the dominion of darkness. In reality, we’re ALL in NEED of God to rescue us. We are messed up people in need of Grace. Jesus’ work on the Cross was the ultimate act of Grace. This idea in Colossians chapter one is that God has rescued you and I from darkness and placed us into light in which we have redemption. We were fallen, sinful, separated from God, but He intervened and now we have hope. That’s it.

We were told that ministry in the Northeast would be difficult. And…we’re seeing that it is. We were told that this place is hard to share the Gospel. Truth is, ministry anywhere is difficult. Paul…on the road to Damascus wasn’t a seeker. Let’s not mistake laziness for Going and Sharing. God calls and God equips. We have been rescued…let’s live that and let’s share that story. After all, that’s why we’re here. Why are you here?

Busy Season

It’s been a busy few weeks for us in Brooklyn. We had a great Easter Service with several visitors. We were able to see some friends from Mud Creek Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC. Mark brought a group of high school students up for their spring break to serve in the city. Kristi and I were able to lead the group on an ethnic prayer walking tour of Brooklyn. We had a blast leading them and we think they enjoyed seeing such diversity in Brooklyn.

Kevin has been busy the last two weeks attending real estate class. He passed his class test and is awaiting the results from his state test. We feel the Lord opened a door for him to do this and we’re trusting this is a part of God’s plan. Kevin led worship for the second time this past Sunday and it was well received.

Please pray for both of us that God would continue to open a door for employment. Kristi has been meeting regularly with Lesley for accountability and friendship. Soon, Kristi will be taking a more active role in the women’s ministry within Cornerstone Church.

Prayer Needs:

Jobs

Church Partners

Cornerstone Church

People of Bay Ridge